Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) invites people all over the world to focus their attention on issues related to tobacco on health on May 31, which has been designated as ‘World No-Tobacco Day’. This occasion aims at encouraging governments, communities, groups and individuals to become aware of the serious health problems caused by the use of tobacco, especially among younger generation, and to take appropriate action to combat this harmful behaviour.
Tobacco use is fast emerging as one of the major health challenges facing the world today. Every few seconds, somewhere in the world, tobacco claims a victim even though smoking along with other forms of tobacco consumption (like chewing in the form of gutkha, zarda, khaini, etc., known as smokeless tobacco), remains the most preventable cause of diseases and death worldwide. Tobacco products are known as the cause of over two dozen or group of diseases.
Health experts point out that tobacco products, absolutely, have no safe level of consumption. But the health risk of tobacco are vastly underestimated by common people and even by many of those who are responsible for protecting and promoting public health. This widespread underestimation of risks associated with stop accounts for the easy availability of tobacco products as well as lenient tobacco policies in most parts of the world. Researchers have rated nicotine as even more addictive than heroin, cocaine, marijuana or alcohol.
The fact that consumption of tobacco, particularly smoking, is considered a highly social activity further increases the addiction rate. In many cases, the addiction stems from a simple desire to be well-accepted within a peer group. Today, with a smaller gap in the consumption of tobacco in men and women, the fairer sex too puts themselves at a greater risk of cervical cancer, infertility, premature menopause and osteoporosis.
According to experts, tobacco use is the cause of cancers of lip, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, larynx, lungs and several other body organs. Respiratory diseases ranging from tuberculosis, asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis to chronic airway obstruction are known to result from repeated tobacco use. Similarly, a number of cardiovascular diseases are a direct fallout of smoking. Mothers who smoke expose their babies to a host of paediatric diseases like low birth-weight, respiratory distress syndrome and sudden infant death syndrome. There is no risk-free level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Even the passive smokers stand to risk of suffering from lung cancer and other tobacco induced diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
A report by US Federal officials said taxes, bans and treatment must all be pursued to bring smoking rates down as cigarette smoke causes immediate damage to a person’s lungs and their DNA even in small amounts, including from second-hand smoke. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can cause damage to one’s DNA, which can lead to cancer and other serious complications, including chronic pulmonary obstruction disease (CPOD), which is the third-leading killers across the globe.
The World Health Organization (WHO) report on the ‘Global Tobacco epidemic’ says that six million people die every year from tobacco-related diseases worldwide, and with five million new tobacco users joining in annually the death rate could further increase to eight million a year by 2030. Tobacco use is one of the biggest contributors to the non-communicable diseases epidemic, including heart diseases, stroke, cancers and various respiratory diseases and accounts for 63 per cent of all deaths worldwide. The WHO has made it mandatory for governments across the globe to adopt ‘tobacco health warnings’ that meet all the criteria for maximal effectiveness, including that they cover more than half of the pack, appear on both the front and back of the pack and contain certain specific pictures.
Accordingly, the Union Government of India, from May 31, 2009, has mandated that tobacco products in the country carry graphic pictorial warnings such as skull and cross bones, inflamed lungs, scorpion, etc. These are meant to effectively convey the dangers of tobacco consumption, especially to illiterate consumers of such products.
Again, since 1 April last year, the government has further hardened its stand against tobacco products, even while alarming the threat of the tobacco products manufacturers to halt their production. The Union Health Ministry’s September 24, 2015 modification for implementation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labeling) Amendment Rules, 2014, which prescribes larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the display area on packaging of tobacco products came into force from April 1, 2016.
Besides, due to an increasing number of young people consuming tobacco products, the Union Health Ministry is now planning necessary arrangements for an aggressive campaign regarding ill-effects of tobacco use, on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Instagram. Recent official estimates revealed that over 5500 youth start using tobacco in some form or other everyday in India. Of them, 47.9 per cent are males and 20.3 per cent females. Several tobacco control studies have also revealed that females start tobacco use before the age of 15, whereas the general average of initiation of tobacco use in the country is 17.8 years. The Union Health Ministry is in the process of completely re-doing its media campaign plan; while anti-tobacco campaign will continue in newspapers, radio jingles and television programmes, focus will now be more on social media, as a new strategy against tobacco use.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
